The present invention relates to a technique of dividing data sequentially input, and acquiring support information on input data from hierarchical database, for example, relates to a technique effectively applied to data processing for sequentially displaying support information such as description information on input codes when inputting the codes under an integrated development environment of software development.
Products that incorporate microcomputers thereinto are generalized. However, in recent years, with advanced functions of the products, a controlled variable by the microcomputer, that is, a scale of an embedded program incorporated into the products increases. Also, the development of the embedded program needs to be conducted while always referring to an enormous amount of hardware manual at the time of coding and at the time of debugging. For that reason, work for referring to the manual is required in addition to an increase in the scale of the program, and an improvement in the development efficiency is therefore desired. For example, a large number of registers (or control registers) are arranged for the purpose of conducting function settings on a peripheral module or a circuit module such as an accelerator which are incorporated into the microcomputer. When parameters for setting values for the respective bits of those registers are determined, an enormous amount of hardware manual is frequently referred to in order to refer to values of the respective bits of the register and their significances when determining the parameters for setting values for the respective bits of those registers.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 1989-118925 discloses a method of guiding a program input as an input guide. Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique in which a guide of all parameter formats of the syntax is displayed in another area different from a program input area with a change in color or font between a current input portion and an uninput portion when depressing another specific function key after characters such as Do syntax in a functional language program such as an LISP (list processor) has been input. According to this technique, a list of the parameters of the program is checked at an arbitrary time point of an input process without the addition of the restriction of freedom to an input environment of the program having the free format, and an effective input of a correct parameter can be induced and supported. FIG. 3 of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 1989-118925 illustrates a display example of an insertion guide and an indirect guide of the parameters of the Do syntax in an LISP. The input guide illustrated in this publication is realized as one function of an editor. A screen configuration of a full screen editor is illustrated in which a header as the editor is displayed on a top line of a display screen, a message area is displayed on a second line, and a large area below the message area is set as a program input/edition area.
The full screen editor of this free format extracts a functional name or reserved words of the input program, or a command (collectively called “program language”) and a parameter (argument) portion. A notation database that stores the guide characters of the parameters and a storage rule of the list of the parameters for each of the program languages is accessed. The notation rule is checked against the extracted input parameters (actual argument), and the guide character of the parameter corresponding to the uninput or short parameter is cut out, and inserted and displayed at a position to be input subsequently to the input program. In order to identify the inserted guide character, an arrangement position of the insertion guide is stored and managed in another guide attribute list different from a text of the input program.
In inputting the program with the use of the above editor, when the guide is required at the time of inputting a part of the programs to an input area of the programs, a range of the syntax is determined. Then, if the range of the function names and the individual parameters are extracted from a designated target range, the guide character of the parameter corresponding to the function name, and the notation rule are extracted from the notation database. The rotation rule is checked against the actual argument obtained in advance to check the excess and deficiency of the parameters, and the formats of the respective parameters. The guide character of the parameter corresponding to the short parameter portion is inserted at a position to be input subsequently to a text to display the guide. When another specific function key is depressed after inputting partial characters of the program, the guide of all the parameter formats of the syntax is displayed in another area different from the program input area as with the message area on the second line in the display screen. In the guide display, the current input portion and the uninput portion are displayed with different colors or fonts in the display character string.